THUD!
Delta lay dazed on the floor, her tail drooping and her tied-up long hair scattered across the ground like ink dropped into clear water. She stared at the training room ceiling, her pupils dilated.
Beside her, Lin massaged his wrist and walked off the field as if he had merely done a few push-ups.
She lost.
A crushing defeat.
Clearly, her speed, strength, and reactions were superior, yet she had been knocked down without even touching him once. He hadn't even used a weapon.
The victory was decided in a few short seconds, and her pride in becoming a MANTIS vanished completely.
Delta wasn't the type to make excuses after a loss, claiming Lin had more experience or that his moves were underhanded. She was consistently quick-witted, composed, and possessed her own brand of high pride. A loss was a loss, and this was a one-on-one combat without any external interference.
"I... acknowledge you, for now," she said resentfully, pushing herself up and calling out to Lin back.
Lin walked out without looking back.
"I don't need anyone's acknowledgment."
Someone had been watching most of it through the window from outside. Leaning against the wall waiting for Lin to emerge, he shrugged and made a face pitying the stupidly standing Delta.
"You were a bit too harsh. She's a recruit."
Lin silently unwrapped the tape from his hands and tossed it into the trash.
"Better to be taught a lesson here than on the battlefield... right?" Ato scratched his head and looked helplessly at the listless girl. "By the way, here's another one..."
"What do you mean 'another one'?" Lin visual window lit up as he confirmed a few items on his helmet panel.
"Forget I said anything. It's your business anyway."
Lin nodded, then reached back into the training room and spoke in a steady voice to Delta, who had her head lowered: "Begin training."
Delta felt this person was special.
Indeed, one had to see for themselves to know if rumors were true. Delta only knew that the rumors about this man were not exaggerated; if anything, they were conservative.
For instance, a new tag could be added: Sadistic Tendencies.
"What kind of... training is this?"
Delta sat before a device that looked like an arcade machine no matter how she viewed it, watching Lin manually pull up a game screen... Was it really an arcade game?
"Through our combat exercise, I have identified which areas of training you lack. I will help you overcome those weaknesses one by one." Lin visual window consistently flickered with a deep blue light; Delta had no idea what it represented. "However, I have always been very strict with my squad members. If you do not meet my training requirements, only punishment awaits you."
"First is this arcade game. It's a common target-shooting game to increase your score, but on the hardest difficulty. Your training goal is simple: surpass the high score."
That simple?
Delta was a MANTIS. To a normal person, an arcade high score might be an insurmountable mountain, but with her reaction speed and hand speed, she could easily—
"One million three hundred thousand?!"
She pressed her face against the screen in disbelief, staring at the first-place score that was more than a million points ahead of the second-place score, which only had a few tens of thousands. This wasn't just being ahead of the pack; it was a completely different world.
Hitting one target only gave three points. Consecutive hits would gradually increase the points per target, but the speed would get faster and faster. If she missed just one target, the combo would break, and the target score would reset to three.
This wasn't just a test of reaction and hand speed; it was a true test of patience and composure.
"What kind of monster hit this score?" Delta swallowed hard as she looked at the first-place player ID: "Zero." "Hey..."
"Address me as Adjutant Lin."
"...Adjutant Lin, is this really not a system error?"
"No error. I know Zero personally. I saw him hit this score with my own eyes."
Lin answered Delta question considerately, then moved a chair to sit beside her, leisurely brewing a cup of coffee.
"You may begin. The training period for this project is one month. There will be punishments every day until you complete the training. If you can't finish it in a month..."
He didn't finish the sentence, instead taking a sip of coffee, but Delta felt a deep, chilling dread.
However... she was a MANTIS. This was just an arcade game. The first-place holder was just a person; how could she not surpass him? Besides, she was a gaming expert!
At this thought, Delta confidence surged, and she impatiently started her first game.
She didn't notice that even while drinking coffee, the visual window symbolizing Lin helmet system remained lit.
The early stage of the game was relatively easy. Nearly five minutes later, Delta watched her combo score climb higher and higher, nearing two hundred points. The corners of her mouth curved up slightly.
Sip... Lin took a sip of coffee, calmly watching her operate the crosshair with rapid hand speed.
However, in the mid-game, the target's movement speed suddenly increased. Caught off guard, Delta missed a shot, directly causing her to lose a health bar and resetting her combo.
Delta gritted her teeth, suppressed the sudden surge of anger, and focused all her attention on the screen.
With a MANTIS's reaction speed as a foundation, she quickly adapted to the accelerated pace, and the increasing speed no longer affected her.
But this improved state only lasted a few minutes. Under her aim, one of the targets suddenly made a sharp stop, causing her bullet to miss.
"..."
It... avoided... it... itself?!
At this moment, Delta sincerely wanted to smash the arcade screen with a punch.
Then came the final difficulty stage. Not only were the targets fast enough to flash across the screen, but they would also suddenly stop, reverse, accelerate, and circle... The previous difficulty was not even a warm-up compared to the final difficulty!
Forget combos; Delta now found it hard to hit two targets consecutively. Drenched in sweat, she watched her health melt as fast as a snowman beside a furnace, until a large "NOOB" popped up.
Noob...
Delta sat dazed before the screen, looking at her score of only a few thousand and that blunt, mocking word "NOOB."
Her delicate fists gradually clenched.
"Again!"
Her anger turned into motivation, and she immediately started the next game. Lin, meanwhile, added a second cup of coffee for himself.